The field of the invention relates generally to methods and systems for recommending merchants and, more particularly, to network-based methods and systems for recommending merchants to a transaction payment card holder using past transaction history of the cardholder with merchants, current preferences of the cardholder, and the transaction history of other cardholders with merchants.
Consumers today have an increasing number of entertainment choices available to them both in the number of choices segments of entertainment available, but also in the number of merchants available in each segment. As used herein, a segment is a group of merchants offering a similar entertainment experience. Such segments may include a dining segment, an events segment, a night club segment, or an activities segment. Additionally, new merchants become available, which may provide consumers an entertainment experience they would enjoy if they knew about the new merchant. Moreover, merchants may want to aid a consumer's decision by offering incentives, such as reward points, discounts, and special offers to consumers. Consumers have the option of searching numerous websites or “friending” numerous merchants in an effort to make more informed entertainment decisions. However, the websites are often not objective and their reputations are often not objective, and friending numerous merchant results in time-consuming searching through the friended merchants website.